


Moving Forward

by Wix



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Fix It, Gen, Healing, Mind Manipulation, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), new avengers team, not team Cap friendly, not wanda maximoff friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 14:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21411409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix/pseuds/Wix
Summary: Tony returns from Siberia to deal with the world after the Avengers.
Relationships: Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 129
Kudos: 4253
Collections: Best Team Iron Man, EGFixIts, Fics I Don't Want To Lose, Post-Civil War Media Fallout (Team Iron Man), Salty Tony Stark, Team Decency (Salty Team Iron Man Fics), Tony Cinematic Universe One-Shots, Tony Stark Defense Squad I, ellie marvel fics - read





	Moving Forward

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone! Just wrote this up and figured I'd post it. Enjoy!
> 
> (It's marked 'Not Team Cap friendly, but really they don't show up much)

He’s not entirely sure yet if doing this walk once again is humbling or just incredibly sad. He thinks it might be a strange mix of both.

He’s taken this walk before. Traveled up dark, unlit hallways all by himself. Stepped over broken concrete and the echoes of a home that once existed here.

The last time, the various broken bodies of the Iron Legion littered the floor and JARVIS was silent. A testament to a loss that dug so deep into Tony’s breast that he had thought that the shrapnel had miraculously returned into his veins, cutting and tearing with each breath and beat of his heart. Last time, a stranger came into his home and hurt his friends, hurt his family. This time though, this time he makes the same walk and the damage done isn’t from an outside source.

He should have told Rogers no much more firmly when he’d first brought Wanda into the fold. He should have stepped up and held his ground as all of them turned on him, looking at him with distrustful eyes. Bruce was gone, and with his departure went any chance that any of them would listen or believe anything Tony said or claimed in the aftermath of Ultron. It didn’t matter what proof Tony had, the tribunal of Steve Rogers had voted, and he’d been found guilty on all accounts.

Funny that Wanda hadn’t been. Tony wonders if he would have gotten the same treatment if he’d bat his eyelashes at Rogers and looked at him with false hero worship too.

Then again, Tony’s never been good at that. Maybe his life would have been easier if he had, but he hadn’t. There was nothing there to praise as far as Tony had always been concerned. This was just a man. A fallible man who’s unyielding and uncompromising stance was always going to destroy them.

Although there are many who say that it’s Tony’s fault they’re in this place. Tony’s fault for not being the one to do all the things that Rogers couldn’t do. Tony’s fault for not bowing down or bowing out. Always Tony’s fault, so sayeth the Tribunal.

The hole goes down past the basement levels. Down into the dirt and into the darkness of the earth. Tony can’t see how far down it goes, but he knows that it once contained the body of his son. Of JARVIS reimagined and reborn, pulled into the Witch’s orbit like so many around them and left in the dirt when she had no use for him anymore.

How is Rogers justifying that? Is he even trying to or does he not even care? What was Barton even doing here? Why hadn’t Tony considered the thought that Rogers would escalate this whole thing and call in soldiers beholden only to him to the detriment of the world? How had Tony not seen it coming? How had he been so blind?

_“Sometimes my teammates don’t tell me things.” _Rogers words echo in Tony’s mind. _“Don’t lie to me Rogers, did you know?” “Yes.” _Tony wonders if the hypocrisy keeps Rogers awake at night like the lies do for Tony.

He doubts it. It’d require a level of remorse and empathy that Tony’s very much learned at this point Rogers just doesn’t have. Maybe that’s why he took in the Witch. Maybe there was something to be said about the similarities that he saw between the two of them. Maybe Tony should have listened, maybe he should have looked closer.

He’s getting so tired of those he lets close being the ones he should have kept the farthest away from him.

_“Are you so blinded by your own ego?”_ Not one of Natasha’s better manipulation moments, but Tony can see now why she thought it’d work. Who knows, maybe it has on some level. Tony’s ego. That thing that the Avengers felt needed to be chained and collared and controlled from the moment they stepped into his life. God he’d been so foolish as to ever think it was anything else. He wants to be mad at himself, he wants to rage and punch any glass that shows the reflection of a broken man in it but he knows that it wasn’t entirely his fault. After all, even he still had a little innocence leftover at one point. Too bad it had to go away and now the man standing alone amongst the wreckage doesn’t know how to make the world believe and trust in heroes when he no longer does either himself.

He sits at the edge of the hole and spends the night looking down into it. Waiting to find answers he doesn’t find.

+++

_‘Tony, you’re worrying me man.’_ _Rhodey tells him from his hospital bed. ‘FRIDAY says that you keep going back to the Compound every night. Alone.’ _

_‘I’m just thinking Rhodey Bear.’ Tony tells him, and it’s the honest truth. ‘I’m just trying to find clarity.’ _

_‘There’s nothing there Tony.’ _

_‘I don’t know about that.’ Tony says. ‘You know that feeling when you’re on the precipice of a giant breakthrough?’_

_‘Yeah?’_

_‘That’s how I feel when I’m there.’ _

_‘…that doesn’t make me worry any less.’ Rhodey says to that after a pause and Tony figures it really shouldn’t. _

+++

Vision can’t look at the hole. He doesn’t even like to come into the area, calling out to Tony instead from the doorway as Tony sits at the edge and keeps looking down. Vision’s apologized time and time again, and so has Tony. Neither of them were at fault, neither of them are to blame and yet the world comes for them all the same.

There’s a letter that comes in the mail. It’s from Wakanda, FRIDAY tracked the package despite the attempts to throw off its originating location. Even if the block phone hadn’t told Tony who sent it, the scrawl on the front of the letter spelling out his name does it for him. Outside the world demands justice, it demands answers and retribution and inside Tony sits with a letter and a phone from a man who thought himself a modern day Hercules fighting against the evils of corruption and never looking up from his fists to see the truth.

Vision and FRIDAY are talking behind Tony’s back. They’re worried. He’s been staring at that void for too long. He feels guilty that he doesn’t have an answer for them yet that will set them at ease. So he sits there, with the letter and phone in hand and waits for clarity.

+++

_‘You know where they are.’ Ross snaps at him during the meeting and Tony wants to sigh. He wants to close his eyes and **rest**. Why is no one letting him rest? _

_‘If you know where they are, telling us would be the proper thing to do.’ The other Ross says. Tony can’t help but think it funny. Two Ross’s. Two pains in his ass with the same name. He also can’t help but think it’s funny how T’Challa just sits there, a perfectly neutral look on his face like he thinks he’s playing some game with them all. _

_Does he think this is funny too? Does he find some amusement in the damage that he’s caused to the world in his rage? Damage that he wants to pretend is justified because of his grief and yet he lambasts Tony for Tony admitting to lashing out at the Winter Soldier. _

_How strange it is that Rogers has found another ally with no ability to recognize their own hypocrisy. It must be a gift. _

_‘They’re in Wakanda.’ The words start a war, but they lift a burden from Tony’s chest that he didn’t even realize he was carrying. _

+++

He dreams of Siberia every night. Every night he stands beside a liar and a thief with the face of an angel. And every night he’s reminded of the stories his mother used to whisper to him at night of how the devil was the brightest and most beautiful of all the angels. Tony never really saw the point of those stories…he wishes he’d payed more attention to them now. Maybe he would have seen what was coming.

The shield comes down again and once again, Tony dies as those flawed blue eyes stare down at him without remorse.

He should have seen this coming. How could he have ever been so blind?

+++

Peter wants to be a hero. The kid shines like a star and there’s so much that Tony can fuck up with him. He looks at Tony with the look that the world gave Steve Rogers, like he’s everything that Peter wants to be and it terrifies him.

Tony’s never been able to save anyone, he’s never even been able to save himself and now Peter wants to be him?

Tony wishes he could make the boy understand that there’s nothing more that Tony wants for him than to be anything but.

On the second week, Pepper calls in the big guns. Tony’s sitting at the edge of the hole when he hears someone come up behind him, and they come sit down next to him.

“What’s down there?” Harley asks and Tony shrugs.

“Don’t know yet.” Tony replies and Harley nods like he understands. Something about the whole thing makes Tony think that maybe he does, but they just sit in silence for a few hours, looking down into a hole that’s still holding all the answers.

+++

_‘Big man in a suit of armor. I know guys with none of that worth ten of you.’ And they called him arrogant. They said he had the ego. They said he was the one who was cruel. Funny how they never seemed to see the truth._

+++

The suit needs a remodel again. As Tony’s learned now, there are things that he’d taken for granted and scenarios that he’d not planned ahead for. The suit needs to evolve, it needs to be stronger and better.

Tony needs to evolve too. Stark men are made of iron after all.

Tony runs his fingers against the jagged edges of the broken ARC reactor and he can feel the skin split on the sharp lines. How symbolic that Rogers went for the ARC reactor after everything. After Tony’d told him about his lingering nightmares, about how sometimes he’d wake up and claw at his chest because he couldn’t see the light and he was dying. How Pepper eventually couldn’t take the stress of it all and left.

How Tony had told him that the reactor had once been a visual image of a gift – a new heart as it were – given to him by a man in a cave who had pulled off the impossible and pulled Tony back from death before setting him on a new path.

Why doesn’t it surprise him that Rogers went after it? Steve’s been going for Tony’s soft spots each and every time Tony’s revealed them to him since they met.

+++

_‘Did you know Rogers?’ ‘Yes’ _

_There are times that Tony agrees with Zemo these days. He’s never quite sure how to feel about that. _

+++

“How’d you find me?” Jessica asks as she just walks away from the door and towards the mini fridge in the corner. Tony lets himself in and closes it behind him.

“Hogarth mentioned you.” He admits and Jessica shakes her head.

“Shoulda known.” She mutters as she pulls out a bottle and grabs two cups. She walks over to her desk and pours a drink for both of them before she sits and kicks her feet up. “First one’s free.” She says, inclining to the glass. “You look like you need it.”

“Do I?” Tony asks as he sits and the dark haired woman looks at him with an intense stare. “Why would you say that?”

“I know that look.” She says, taking a drink and motioning to Tony’s face. “Life’s a bitch when it all gets fucked up, isn’t it?” She asks and Tony pauses before he lets out a soft sigh, just a tiny amount of the pain he’s hiding inside.

“Yeah…yeah I suppose it is.” He says before he takes the glass and drinks.

+++

_‘Tony Stark- Not Recommended’ ‘I’ve seen the footage, the only one you fight for is yourself’ _

** _And who do you think you fight for Rogers?_ ** _ Tony wants to ask him. He wants to know if Rogers registers the fact that he’s talking about himself too. _

_Tony wonders if Steve ever noticed how much or how easily Tony could turn his words around on him and how they’d be even more true than they were when Rogers used them against him. _

+++

“King T’Challa is off of the Accords Council.” Secretary Ross tells him and Tony makes the appropriate acknowledging sound. “He’s got problems of his own to contend with now. Several nations are considering how to best show their displeasure with the man and his politics.”

“Will he give up the criminals that he’s holding in Wakanda?” Tony asks and Ross shakes his head.

“No. He’s refused.”

“Foolish.” Tony says with a shake of his head. “Very foolish.”

“For once, we agree.” Ross says and Tony sighs. “The Accords have ratified.”

“Are you disappointed Secretary?” Tony asks and Ross gives him a small glare. “Considering that the ratification of the Accords means that your options are no longer needed or viable?”

“Careful Stark. It’s still early, and with Rogers and his little gang running around out there there’s only so much time before the world wants a stricter response to freaks like you.” Ross says. “Enjoy the final days Stark. You may have postponed the inevitable, but even you can’t hold back the tide for long.”

“No one can.” Tony admits with a nod. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Have a good day Secretary.”

“You too Mr. Stark.” Ross says with an almost mocking tilt of his head before he leaves and Tony rubs his hands over his face in exhaustion. Why is he always the one left cleaning up the messes? Why is he already certain of how this will all play out? He’ll fix it, he’ll soothe the world and temper its anger and then Rogers and his ilk will waltz back in and pretend that they did anything to help.

Tony rolls his eyes. Rogers will waltz in and pretend that he did all of it even though he didn’t do a lick of it. That eventuality sounds more likely with their history. It’ll be the fall of SHIELD all over again.

God Tony’s tired of being stuck on this wheel.

+++

Harley’s coming along in the armor almost too well. He’s a natural, adjusting to the systems and to FRIDAY’s oversight so well. Tony’s proud of him, almost as proud as he is terrified. This isn’t a life that Harley should want. It’s not the glitz and the glamour.

It’s pain. Just pain. All the time. Never-ending. Forever.

And yet it’s still what Harley wants and so Tony gives it to him. Peter responds well to him and Tony has a hope that their team up will go better than his and Rogers did. Maybe they won’t make the same mistakes that their predecessors did.

“Figure it out yet?” Harley asks and Tony clenches the phone and the letter.

“Almost.” He says and Harley nods and sits down to sit it out with him once more. Tony’s silently grateful for it. He’s getting tired of staring into the abyss alone.

+++

The Chinese restaurant is certainly an interesting choice as far as ‘secret meeting places’ goes, but the food is good so Tony’s got no real complaints. Jess kept her word, and the rest of the members of her team arrive to speak with Tony about the chance of them stepping forward and continuing to do what they were doing before the Accords.

Murdock has already considered signing, which is not surprising considering his legal background. He of all of them understands the need for the Accords the best.

Cage is uncertain if he wants to keep doing this. He’s got people to worry about, people to look out for. Tony doesn’t miss the sideways glances that he keeps sending Jessica. He’s smart enough not to ask though. Not that he needs to.

Rand practically jumps on the idea with all of the charisma of someone who truly believes and can get others to believe too. Rogers had that charisma, Tony had that charisma once too. Now though, now Tony recognizes it for how dangerous such a thing is and he hopes that Rand uses it better than others before him have.

Wing is uncertain, but willing which is more than Tony can ask for. She reminds him a little of Natasha, calm and cool and yet something lurking under the surface that makes Tony feel like at any moment he could be marked as prey. He rather likes her for it.

Temple looks tired and resigned. Like she’s given up hoping that her life won’t revolve around superheroes and supervillains. He wonders how long she’s been doing this, caring for heroes who show up injured at her door, but he’s grateful for the vote of confidence in Tony’s recruitment attempts here.

Knight doesn’t want any trouble to come to her streets. Part of Tony thinks she’s here to make sure that this group _doesn’t_ think about getting themselves involved in something again without the approval of the law and the Accords behind them. He promises her that he’s attempting to keep this on the up and up and he offers to build her a new arm if she wants when she calls him out on his bullshit later. She can tell he doesn’t believe in what he’s doing anymore, but he’s still trekking along because he has to.

He feels like a ghost in the body of Tony Stark sometimes. Like the real him never made it out of Siberia.

Sometimes he thinks the Tony that died there was the lucky one.

+++

“You have a darkness clinging to you.” Stephen Strange tells him and Tony finds himself laughing like he hasn’t in a long time.

“Trust me Strange. That I’ve known for some time.” Tony says, wiping at his eyes. “All that aside, are you going to help us?”

“I have responsibilities Stark.” Strange says with a sigh like he’s said this to Tony so many times and he’s just tired of repeating it. He did say he protects the Time Stone so who knows, maybe various versions of Tony have come to him before, attempting to get his help.

“We all have responsibilities Strange.” Tony points out. “That doesn’t stop the world from needing our help.” Strange makes an annoyed face as he turns away from Tony.

“I refuse to go to anything that even resembles a ‘team bonding experience’.” He says and Tony gives him an almost angelic smile.

“We’ll see.” He says and Strange gives him a glare. It’s a start. Tony’s still trying to find out if it’s a good one.

+++

_‘You’re a monster, Stark’ The whispers growl at him as he lays on the frozen floor in the Hydra base and Tony sighs. _

_‘Hello Wanda.’ He greets into the darkness as he feels the taint of her presence seep into his mind once more. Has he ever been free of her? How many times have they been here? _

_‘Why won’t you just **die**?’ Wanda snarls and Tony chuckles as he prepares himself for what’s coming next. _

_‘If you ever find out the answer to that, please tell me. I’d love to know.’ He says as he closes his eyes and waits. _

_He doesn’t have to wait long, but then again, he never did. She was always as impatient as she was cruel, and some things never change. _

+++

The day Rhodey walks again is the day that the answer finally comes. Tony stands at the edge and for the first time he knows what he’s supposed to do. He takes the letter that he’s never opened and the phone he’s never used and he tosses them down into the hole. He goes back and forth from all their rooms and grabs their things, the things he bought them when he thought they were ‘family’ – what the hell had he been thinking? – and he tosses them down there too.

For the first time he realizes that it isn’t a void. It isn’t a hole that Tony doesn’t know what to do with. It’s a grave. Dug out by the Avengers themselves for themselves and Tony spends all day filling it. Of grabbing anything that shows they ever lived there and tosses it down into the dark.

Tossing the dirt over it is cathartic in a way that he hadn’t been fully prepared for and it feels like the wound inside of him is finally scabbing over. Underneath the Compound, he buries the Avengers and for the first time in a long time – Tony can breathe again. Unhindered and unshackled by them.

+++

“You want me to what?” Strange asks, sounding surprised.

“I want you to teach me ‘magic’. Or whatever abracadabra stuff you do.” Tony says and Strange gives him a look like he’s afraid that Tony might have lost his mind. He doesn’t know yet. Tony lost his mind years ago. He’s in the process of getting it back now and he’s not going to stand by while any of them try to invade it again.

“What for?”

“…you said I had a ‘darkness’ clinging to me.” Tony reminds him and he nods. “I want to know that when she comes knocking again that I can drop kick her ass straight out to Timbuktu.” Tony bites his lip. “I’m done paying for imagined wrongs.” He says softly and Strange takes a moment before he sighs.

“I have the feeling that you’re going to be my most frustrating student.” He says and Tony grins at him.

“Probably.”

“Ancient One save me.” Strange mutters before he motions for Tony to follow him.

+++

“Hope Van Dyne wants to join the Avengers Initiative.” Rhodey tells him over lunch and Tony looks up at him surprised.

“Huh…I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“She told me to tell you that her father’s a moron, yours was an ass and neither of you are them and that she’ll be at the meeting on Tuesday.” Rhodey says and Tony laughs.

“Wait. So is she asking to join the Avengers or _telling_ us she’s joining the Avengers?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s the second one.”

“Always did like her.” Tony snorts as he takes a bite. “Is she taking over ‘Ant-Man’?”

“No. Apparently she has her own suit. ‘Wasp’.”

“I like it. And I’m a thousand times more afraid of Wasps than I am of ants. Wasps are nature’s evil little psychos.” Tony pauses. “Can she control Wasps like Ant-man controlled ants?”

“God I hope not.”

“Here. Here. That’s just too much power for one person.” Tony says with a shiver. Sure enough, Hope is there on Tuesday and no one argues against her inclusion to the team.

Not that Tony thinks she would have cared either way.

+++

Danny and Hope end up helping Tony redesign the Compound. It’s nice to have other backers and helpers in it all. Jess, Peter and Luke take care of most of the heavy lifting, or at least the heavy lifting that Scott doesn’t get to first and keep shrinking into miniatures.

Tony kind of finds them amusing even if Hank fusses about Scott using his technology in front of Tony. If anything, Tony figures that makes it all better.

+++

_‘You’re a monster Stark.’ Wanda repeats her usual tirade and Tony looks up at her, straddling him and holding the shield up like Steve before her. He knows how this ends, she doesn’t go for the heart, she never has. _

_‘No Wanda.’ Tony says, reaching out and catching the edge before it can crush his neck like all the times before. ‘**You** are.’ She stares at him in one-part horrified bafflement and one-part pure rage. _

_‘How are you doing this?’ She snaps, lashing out with her powers to try to hold him down again, to return him to the helpless version of him that she’s enjoyed all these years. _

_‘I’m done playing these games Wanda.’ Tony tells her, ripping the shield out of her hands and knocking her back. For the first time since these dreams began – Tony rises to his feet. ‘I’m leaving here. And I’m never coming back.’ _

_‘I’ll destroy you Stark.’ Wanda promises, red oozing from her form. _

_‘You’ll try.’ Tony replies as he wrenches control from her and throws her out of his mind like a child throwing a Frisbee. _

_He wakes up feeling rested for the first time in years. _

+++

“Rogers has made a plea.” Rhodey tells him and Tony looks up from the newest armor and frowns.

“That’s sooner than I expected.” He admits and Rhodey shrugs.

“I don’t know why, maybe it’s T’Challa coaching him, but they’re making pleas now.”

“Do you think it’ll work?” Tony asks. He already knows how he feels about it and he can see it reflected in Rhodey’s eyes.

“Yeah…unfortunately…yeah.”

“Well, even if they come back it doesn’t mean that they’re Avengers.” Tony says. “They’d have to be reinstated which would take a vote.”

“Yeah, I don’t see anyone giving them the time of day. Except maybe Scott, but who knows.”

“I guess we’ll deal with it when it comes due.”

“I guess we will.” Rhodey says with a sigh before he comes over and looks at the War Machine armor. “Now let me see what you’ve messed up since I’ve been gone.” He teases and Tony cries out in fake indignation as he launches into a tirade reminiscent of their time at MIT.

It’s nice to feel that the Lab is home again. He never realized how much the joy of creating had been taken out of him until Rogers and his ‘babysitters’ were gone.

+++

“I’ve decided to look at a new way of working it Councilmember.” Tony tells Ross – the other Ross. “I’ve realized that backing and funding the Avengers Initiative completely was a conflict of interests. It’s not a position that I intend to get into again.”

“But your old team might be returning soon.” Ross says. “And from what I understand their main livelihood was Avenging.”

“No. There was no payroll for ‘Avenging’.” Tony says. “There was never any contracts, agreements or employment things worked up. Just my credit cards being used by various individuals. Nowadays we’ve all determined that each Avenger is to have their own outside lives and jobs.”

“That might not be feasible for all of them.” Ross argues and Tony shrugs.

“Then that sounds like a concern of the Council and not of me.” Tony replies. “Sorry Councilmembers. I will not be funding the Avengers Initiative for you.”

It’s relieving to say it aloud. It’s even better to see their surprised faces and to know that they thought that they’d just step into the void created in the past and benefit from Tony Stark’s funds. It’s about time they learned that Tony’s already buried that void. It’s been gone for a while now, and it’s never coming back.

+++

He gets the news that the Avengers have been pardoned by that Saturday. He’s a little surprised when the new team shows up in its entirety with pizza and snacks and movies and they all just have a night in with him, helping keep the panic and the darkness away.

He sits on the couch, Jess’s legs tossed over his lap and Harley constantly battling Peter for the sour patch kids and for the first time he feels that illusive ‘family’ that Rogers always tried to tell him the previous team was.

He hides his smile with a handful of popcorn.

+++

The vote goes out and Tony had excused himself from it considering his previous history and his concern that he could not offer forth an unbiased vote.

Rogers and his team get declined for Avengers status when they finally return. A unanimous stance from all of the current members. The news has a field day with it. Tony though, Tony just smiles and lets out a secret sigh of relief as he gets back to work.

Rogers tries to approach him several times after the verdict. So does various members of his team but he never manages. Tony’s already spent too much time giving Rogers full access to him whenever he wanted it. It’s a new day and Tony’s learned from past mistakes.

They’re not worth his attention anymore. They’re not his problem, he’s not responsible for juggling every part of this anymore. He’s got a team behind him that actually helps, that actually stands beside him and backs him; and he wouldn’t give that up to go back to the old ways for anything.

He does find himself wondering if Rogers had to get a job, and he entertains himself with the notion a few times but he never looks into it. Unless they do something that requires his attention, he figures he can refuse to put that burden on his shoulders.

He’s done covering for them. And nothing is more freeing than that.

+++

_‘We’re not done.’ Wanda growls at him, and Tony just gives her a look. He warned her. He did. He almost wishes that she’d listened to him. He would have rather never had to do this. _

_‘No Wanda…We’re very much done.’ Tony says with an almost apologetic tone. ‘I wish you hadn’t returned.’ _

_‘I was always going to come for you.’ _

_‘You shouldn’t have.’ Tony says as he digs deep and remembers Strange’s teachings. The spell forms itself into existence, curling around Wanda and the young woman shrieks in rage as her magic tries to tear at Tony’s but to no avail. ‘The Mind Stone gave you your gifts, and only through the mind were they going to be taken away.’ Tony says. ‘You did this to yourself. You opened yourself up to this in your hate.’ _

_Wanda screams at him. Wordless cries of pure hatred as the power leaks from her and she flickers out of existence. _

_Tony takes the red mist and forms it into a ball, before he crushes it in his hand. Never again will she torment anyone. Perhaps a form of justice was served after all. _

+++

Tony hears through Ross – the annoying bastard one – that Fury and the World Council dropped the Scarlet Witch after her powers faded away. That they refused to back or to cover for the Sokovian woman now that she was useless to them.

He hears that Rogers put up a defense for her before eventually giving up. He’s relieved to know that she’s forced to leave the country once her ‘citizenship paperwork’ falls through again and Tony just moves on with his life, although he is happy to hear that Wanda is gone from the immediate area.

Rogers tries to reach out to Tony again, getting the closest he ever has before at an event. He’s stopped though by Danny and Colleen and escorted out from the premises. Tony makes a point of not looking at him the entire time. He’s told later that Natasha and Barton tried to break into the Compound and the Penthouse only to be thwarted by FRIDAY after various times of attempting to take her down with SHIELD technology.

Tony turns the information over to the proper authorities and shakes his head when Fury tries to force a meeting with him himself. He doesn’t get past Harley or Harley’s improved potato gun. It’s one of the more entertaining scenarios that Tony thinks he’s seen in a while; but his team curls around him like a shield from the storm and for the first time since he put on the armor – Tony feels safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Please no comments of a negative or critiquing nature. Thank you for understanding.


End file.
